We’re watching, we’re scrutinising - and this is why it matters

It’s also a good job too because there‘s plenty going on across Merseyside this week.

Hello Mersey Monitoroos,

You might want to grab a quick cuppa and get yourself comfy before you tuck in to this week’s digest. It‘s a bit of a bumper one, but we don’t apologise for that.

Just blame the metro mayor

Nearly every week, the Monitor delves into the not so dusty recesses of council websites, digs out calendars of upcoming meetings and has a good old root about to produce this newsletter, which we send out by email as well as publish on our website. You’re reading it right now.

If you’ve been here for a bit already – and thank you for supporting the Monitor – you’ll know this is all the fault of the metro mayor. Well, sort of. For everyone who’s recently signed up (and a very big welcome to you too), here’s the short version.

A good few weeks ago we went to one of Steve Rotheram’s question and answer sessions at Crosby cinema. There were about 50 people there. Although not a great figure, it does appear to be more than turned up for He-Man that night, so props to the metro mayor on that one.

He-Man or Steve Rotheram?

A grilling for the metro mayor ‘He-Man or Steve Rotheram?’ is not a question the Monitor expected to be asking random people in Crosby on a damp evening in June. We do, however, go wherever the story takes us, and last night it took us to a slightly confused

The Mersey MonitorLisa Rand

After we wrote about it, people got in touch to say they hadn’t known it was happening and would have gone if they had. That’s what gave us the idea of a weekly diary of local democracy across Merseyside.

Why the Monitor exists

We’re not obsessed with local democracy for the sake of it. We think it’s important that as many people as possible know what decisions are being made in our names, what happens at council meetings, what our local politicians and officials are saying and doing, and how people can and do get involved.

The more people watching, listening, reading and taking part, the better we’re all able to understand how things work, challenge what doesn’t and, hopefully, help bring about better outcomes for people across Merseyside. That’s why we do what we do, and why we think that you, by reading this right now, are part of the Monitor’s mission too.

Make-up shake up?

This week we’ve spent quite a lot of time watching council meetings in Reform-led St Helens, which we’ll come to shortly, but before that we’ve also been looking at what the resignation of Cllr Sam Gorst from Your Party could mean for the make-up of Liverpool council.

Gorst is one of three Liverpool councillors sitting under the party’s banner and we asked the group’s leader, Cllr Alan Gibbons, about its future. You can read about that here:

Are Your Party’s days on Liverpool council numbered?

Party‘s future faces fresh questions after deputy leader quits. Questions have emerged over the future of Your Party Liverpool on the city council after one of its councillors resigned from the party just weeks after the local branch was launched. The resignation from Your Party of Cllr Sam Gorst,

The Mersey MonitorLisa Rand

Speaking of Liverpool Council, we’re really pleased to share that later this week 15-year old Jack, who joined us a little while ago on work experience (and full disclosure is also my son) has been invited by the head of democratic services and council leader Liam Robinson for a chat.

A chat with the council leader

This came about after Jack wrote of his experiences attending his first ever council meeting, which was, to be fair, quite unrepresentative of normal goings-on as it was in fact the annual meeting, where he found all the pomp and ceremony somewhat alienating.

‘It feels like a club that we’re not part of’

A 15 year old takes on the pomp and ceremony of an historic council meeting Last night both Liverpool and Wirral councils kicked off the annual council meeting season with events at their town halls. In the coming weeks it will be Sefton and Knowsley’s turn too. If you’

The Mersey MonitorLisa Rand

A few weeks after we published the article, the council got in touch to invite Jack to the next one, and also offered the opportunity for us to have a chat with the leader and head of democratic services. Jack has agreed and that is scheduled to be happening ahead of this week’s Liverpool cabinet and full council meetings on Wednesday. Hopefully Jack will have an update for the Monitor on all that after we’ve been.

Behind the scenes we’ve also been busy working away on quite a few things in Sefton, Wirral and Liverpool that we hope to bring you soon. We are an incredibly small team, so it can sometimes take us a little while to get round to looking into everything people send us. Please bear with us. We usually get there or thereabouts in the end.

Just flagging…

A flag is ‘not just a piece of material flying in the wind’, St Helens council leader George Woodward said while introducing the borough’s new flag policy last week. It didn’t have one before but it does now, with a ‘whitelist’ of approved flags and ‘sole discretion’ for any other ones lying with the leader - apart from where there are overriding rules and regulations, of course.

Want a flag flying over the town hall? Make sure you write to the leader

Curious things coming out of St Helens cabinet this month. Until this week, St Helens was one of many local authorities without a formal flag policy. That has now changed, following a meeting of the borough’s cabinet on Monday. The cabinet, made up of mostly relatively newly elected Reform

The Mersey MonitorLisa Rand

One Monitor reader contacted us after seeing our story to tell us about some flag rules and there are plenty. It also turns out that flag rules and etiquettes are surprisingly country-specific, with flag flying following rather different customs around the world.

In some countries, for example, the use of hand flags – such as those carried by Reform’s St Helens leader, who was also seen sporting a Union Jack cape on Wednesday – is much more frowned upon than it is here. Curious stuff.

What happened at St Helens’ first Reform-led full council meeting?

Green spaces, flags (again) and some things the Monitor won’t repeat. St Helens‘ first proper full council meeting under Reform’s leadership took place on Wednesday at St Helens town hall, with the leader Cllr R. George Woodward appearing to take a few moments before it all kicked off

The Mersey MonitorLisa Rand

We’ve also had people getting in touch to suggest which flags they’d like to see flying over St Helens town hall. One to watch as to whether any new ones do emerge over time. Have you got any flag-related suggestions to put to the leader? Let us know too.

One of the flags not in Cllr Woodward’s ‘whitelist’ was on display in Liverpool this week. Rainbow flags were flown from Liverpool’s civic buildings in support and anticipation of the very well attended Liverpool Pride, which took place in the city centre this weekend.

There were so many councillors of so many different political persuasions from Liverpool and elsewhere across Merseyside speaking of and showing their support for Pride, so many in fact it was largely impossible for the Monitor to keep track. In some ways, it was easier to spot those councillors not posting or showing their support.

The crowds of people in Liverpool on Saturday showed people in this city coming together to welcome Pride and stand in support of LGBTQ+ rights, a view with which the Monitor unequivocally and wholeheartedly agrees.

Sands, a Cove and Sefton Council

We’ve also had a number of people get in touch about last week’s announcement from Sefton Council that it has agreed heads of terms with GSL Developments for the redevelopment of the former Sands bar site in Ainsdale.

The council said it has agreed a phased lease arrangement for the prominent Shore Road site, with a long-term lease only to be granted once agreed development milestones have been met. GSL says it will now begin developing detailed proposals and seek planning permission for what has been described as an ‘eco-leisure‘ scheme.

Readers may remember we wrote about GSL recently in relation to the proposed £75 million Cove leisure resort and wave pool on the former park and ride site at Southport Esplanade.

Southport esplanade updates given in ‘error’

What is actually happening at one of Southport’s most prominent sites? The future of a key Southport site has been thrown into confusion after the council admitted this week that months of updates given to councillors about it were incorrect. An exclusivity agreement linked to a proposed £75 million

The Mersey MonitorLisa Rand

That site became the subject of a Monitor exploration after Sefton Council admitted councillors had been incorrectly told for months that an exclusivity agreement with GSL was still in place, despite it having expired. The council told the Monitor and later councillors that the repeated references were the result of a ‘cut and paste’ officer error.

The exclusivity agreement left earlier plans for a community-owned wind turbine on Southport’s Esplanade site in limbo. More recently, cabinet member Paulette Lappin told councillors in a written response to a question from Liberal Democrat councillor Mike Sammon that the future of the site remains ‘under consideration’.

Thank you to everyone who has contacted us about the Sands announcement. We’ll be taking a closer look at the agreement with GSL and whether it has any implications for the future of the Cove proposals. As ever, if you know something we should know, our inbox is open.

Wrong padel

And, another council correction received by the Monitor recently, this time over in Knowsley. This one relates to a story we did about news of padel coming to Kirkby, funded by Pride of Place and the council. Not everyone is convinced it’s what the town centre needs most.

Does Kirkby need padel like an elephant needs a boat?

How ‘Pride in Place‘ is shaping up in Kirkby as millions are earmarked for a new padel centre in the town ‘This isn’t about pet projects, it’s serious investment for the priorities of local people.’ That’s what communities secretary Steve Reed said last year about the government’

The Mersey MonitorLisa Rand

In our last weekly digest, we explained a little more about a conflict of interest declared by Knowsley Council leader Graham Morgan over the plans. It’s a conflict of interest that led to him briefly leaving a cabinet meeting where the decision was made to contribute £2.5m of council funds and assets towards the £5m padel centre.

Draft minutes produced after the meeting stated a family friend of the leader had shares in a company called Padel Play Ltd and this is why he declared the interest and left the meeting.

Confusingly, though, a search of Companies House records showed a business by that name had dissolved in November 2025, so it was unclear what shareholding the family friend could have in a non-existent company.

All was clarified, however, soon after when a council spokesperson told the Monitor this had now been corrected to Padel Play Group Ltd, which does exist. We’ll hopefully be taking a bit more of a look at what, if anything, it all means soon.

… and that brings us rather abruptly to the end of our updates. Thanks for bearing with us there, it’s been a busy old time so we’ve had lots to tell you about - but there’s even more we haven’t got round to yet.

Which brings us on, before we get to this week’s diary (please try to contain your excitement), to something important we really wanted to talk you about…

No, the cats are not back!

Don’t worry, there’s been no drama in the Monitor newsroom this week, feline-related or otherwise. We just wanted to let you know a bit more about how we’d love to publish many more stories than we currently do, but ever since we sacked the cats (who did make up more than half our team until recently - it’s a long and tedious story involving Liver Birds and legal letters, all very regrettable) we’ve been rather short-staffed.

Can you spare an hour every now and again to help cover council meetings somewhere on Merseyside and report back on what’s going on?

It would be voluntary for now – we’re sorry about that – but we’re not getting paid either. We genuinely see this as a public service and we’re hoping to change the paying situation before too long.

You don’t need to be a qualified journalist or a writer of literary masterpieces, but you do need to be methodical, balanced and questioning. If you are a journalist with a little time on your hands and are wild enough to fancy helping out with a bit of pro bono public interest reporting, that would be truly amazing too. Ultimately, it’s curiosity and rigour that count. Is that you? Please do get in touch.

It doesn’t have to be council meetings, far from it. If you’ve got an idea for a story within our remit – local public interest journalism on Merseyside – and you’ve got a bit of time to contribute, we’d love to hear from you.

Keeping the faith

Before we finally get on to that diary, we’d also like to say a huge thank you for all the kind donations we’ve received recently. We’ve been blown away.

We’re now just £40 away from having everything we need to register as a Community Interest Company, baking into our structure that the Monitor exists for the benefit of our communities rather than for profit. If you’ve got a quid or two spare, we’d be hugely grateful.

Your support really matters for what we’re trying to do here. Some people have suggested we’ll eventually have to put up a paywall, but we see things differently. We believe Merseyside needs independent public interest journalism that is open access and we also believe that people will support it because they value it. Your donations help us keep that faith.

We’d love to grow the Monitor, take on paid reporters and cover far more of what’s happening across our region. We believe we’ll get there. Until then, if you can donate, read our stories, share them, chat to us about what’s going on where you’re living or about becoming a contributor, all of it helps keep the good ship Monitor afloat and we really appreciate it.

We’ve also had some lovely comments recently about our reporting. They’re genuinely heartening to read, so thank you. With the wind in our sails (or is it the flags?) it’s time to go onwards to this week’s diary…

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

As ever, this guide is far from exhaustive and it’s a bit of a truncated one this week as we’re pretty sure we’ve talked your head off enough already.

We would like to be as comprehensive as possible, and if we’ve overlooked something important, please do get in touch and we can add it in. You can email themerseymonitor@outlook.com or drop us a text on 07442 402 023.

If you’re not reading this by email, just click on an event to expand the box and see more details, including any booking links. All events listed are free to attend. We have not verified the information in the events listings, so please do get in touch if something appears amiss.

Tuesday 28 July

Wednesday July 29

Thursday July 30

before you go…

Just a really quick one to let you know that you can get in touch with us in confidence at themerseymonitor@outlook.com or give us a bell on 07442 402 023.

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Thank you for visiting the Monitor today and for supporting local public interest journalism on Merseyside.